Terri Ryburn-LaMonte has found her life’s work in her love of Route 66. In 2007 she bought a gas station along old Route 66 in Normal, Illinois and is restoring it to its 1931 glory. She will open it as a Route 66 Visitors Center, tea room, and bed and breakfast.
Her interest in the road began in 1953 when, at age five, she traveled the road in a Ford Model A pickup truck with her parents, four brothers, and her Dad’s two hunting dogs. Terri’s presentation is entitled “Marked for Life,” a humorous account of that 1953 trip.
Terri Ryburn-LaMonte is a recognized authority on Route 66, which was her dissertation topic. Terri retired from Illinois State University’s School of Kinesiology & Recreation.
This talk was part of the Greater Midwest Foodways Alliance‘s fifth annual symposium, “Road Food: Exploring the Midwest One Bite at a Time.” Other events from this symposium recorded by Chicago Amplified—listed in the order they were presented—are as follows:
Marked for Life: My Travels on Route 66 in ’53, with Terri Ryburn
State Fair Heirloom Recipe Contest, with Catherine Lambrecht
Mobile Food in 19th-Century Chicago, with Peter Engler
Food Trucks: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow, with Louisa Chu
Will Success Spoil Regional Food?, with Michael Stern
The Drive-In Restaurant: Before and After the Dawn of Fast Food, Food Theater, with Mary Bergin
A Gopher Turned Badger Eats Hoosier, and Vice Versa: Midwestern Culinary Traditions in the Small-Town Cafe, with Joanne Stuttgen
What Happened to Horseshoes?, with Julianne Glatz
Pies on the Road, with Shirley Cherkasky
Ethnographic Food Writing, or How I Ate My Way Across Wisconsin and Lived to Tell About It, with Joanne Stuttgen
Culinary Tourism in the Land of Meat and Potatoes and Green Bean Casserole, with Lucy M. Long
Summer Vacations in Northern Wisconsin, with Kelly Sears
Born to be Mild: Oral Histories and Pathways of the Midwest Supper Club, with Dave Hoekstra
Farmers Markets of the Heartland, the Ultimate Road Trip, with Janine MacLachlan
On the Shawnee Hills Wine Trail, with Clara Orban
Remarks by Marilyn Wilkinson of the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board
Feast: Radical Hospitality in Contemporary Art Curator-Led Tour
Recorded Friday, April 27, 2012 at Kendall College.
